The mayor of San Miguelito district, Irma Hernández, stated that now that the Urban and Domestic Cleaning Authority (AAUD) will be in charge of waste collection in her district, she has set another goal: the community and what she defined as a "cultural change".
"Now there is a responsible entity for dealing with garbage, and our role is much more human, much closer to the community, and focused on supporting this behavioral change. If we don't attack the problem at its root, and just collect garbage, it only generates that I can throw garbage every day," she said in an interview with TVN.
According to Hernández, her function will be to supervise, monitor, and guarantee that the district has a proper waste collection service, and to monitor that the municipality's funds are used correctly. In this sense, she emphasized that dealing with people is the most important thing.
She highlighted that the surveillance center is a technological tool that will change the way the problem is addressed because, in her words, "they are eyes that we have 24/7 on critical points".
"We can trace the actions of our neighbors, especially the operations, the frequencies, the teams that are being deployed in the district, and we must maintain coordinated work, but maintaining respect," she expressed.
"We request the implementation of something that is structured, it is a concrete plan where the roles are clear: you are in charge of collection now, what will be the role of the Community Boards to support, and the San Miguelito Mayor's Office," she said.
"The idea is to be able to work on the awareness of our neighbors in the sensitization programs that we now have a huge window of opportunities as long as we have that collaborative work," Hernández pointed out, who celebrated the departure of Revisalud from San Miguelito.
She stated that she shared with the AAUD a comprehensive plan in which environmentalists, technicians, engineers, and analysts have worked, who have collected information from San Miguelito and have embodied it in a document that they have made available to the Cleaning Authority.
"We have to dedicate ourselves to the most important thing, which is to work on cultural change, on the habits of our residents, and we will continue to focus on transforming large concentrations of waste into viable public spaces," she said on TVN.
According to Hernández, San Miguelito was divided into three zones, which have different geographical qualities, and each of them needs a different kind of attention and response.
